1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to fuel tanks for automotive vehicles and more particularly to a device for mounting a fuel tank on a rear floor of a vehicle body.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a prior art automotive vehicle, as exemplarily shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a fuel tank 10 is disposed under a rear floor 12 and adapted to be supported on a cross member 14, which is arranged at the front end portion of the rear floor 12, and on the rear end portion of the rear floor 12 by means of a supporting band 16 made of steel. A mounting bracket 18 is welded to the rear end of the supporting band 16, and a nut plate 20, which is of an L-like cross section and includes a horizontal plate section 20a and a vertical plate section 20b, is welded at the horizontal plate section 20a, to the rear end portion of the rear floor 12 and at the vertical plate section 20b to a rear panel 22. A nut 24 is welded to the horizontal plate section 20a. The rear end of the supporting band 16 is attached to the rear end portion of the rear floor panel 12 by screwing a fastening bolt 26, which is inserted into bolt accomodation holes formed in the mounting plate 18, rear floor panel 12 and the nut plate 20, into the nut 24.
In the above structure, a large load resulting from an inertia of the fuel tank 10 upon a sudden stop or head-on collision of the vehicle is transferred through the supporting band 16 to act in concentrative manner upon the portion of the cross member 14 and the portion of the rear floor 12 to which the opposite ends of the supporting band 16 are attached. In this instance, the load acting upon the nut plate 20 is directed so as to pull the horizontal plate section 20a and the vertical plate section 20b in the opposite directions and urge them to lie straight. The vertical plate section 20b is therefore subjected to a force that urges the vertical plate section 20b to be stripped off from the panel 22.
However, since the vertical plate section 20b is spot-welded to the rear panel 22 only in the several places, there has been a possibility that the nut plate 20 is stripped off from the rear panel 22 when subjected to a large load resulting from an inertia of the fuel tank upon a sudden stop or head-on collision of a vehicle, resulting in a reduced rigidity and therefore a reduced reliability in support of the fuel tank 20.